True Wuv - Part Duex

On September 13th, 2004, while evacuated to South Carolina for hurricane Frances, I met the love of my life.

I was only 18, freshly graduated from high school, and coming off of an emotional, exciting summer of self-discovery before starting college. When I saw Braden for the first time, the words "The One" flashed through my mind. And boy did we fall hard and fast! 18 days after we met, he drove down to Florida to ask my parents for their blessing to start a relationship with me. It was during that visit, the second time he ever saw me, that he told me he was in love. 4 months later, we were engaged. And talk about fireworks! Talk about magic! Talk about fairy dust and destiny and emotional highs that felt like skydiving every minute of every day! WOOOEEEEE we were out-of-our-minds IN LOVE!

Now, it's been seven years and one day since I met the man of my dreams, and I can honestly tell you that we are more in love right-this-second than we've ever been before.

You see, true love, like excellent wine, only gets better with time. Now, we are best friends in a way that could only be cultivated over many years together. We have countless of inside jokes. Laugh at the same things. Share the same stories. Sleep in the same bed. Experience the same adventures. Know all the dirty secrets, most embarrassing moments, and most intimate joys. Smelled each other's farts and seen each other pee. We get each other. True love is so much more than the movies. Yes, it is roses and candlelight and slow-dancing in the living room. But it's also rubbing backs when someone's puking all over the place. And then cleaning up said puke out of unconditional love. It's staying up all night together in the ER. It's praying together. And doing the dishes when you don't want to. And scrubbing toilets together. And crying together. And sometimes being just the two of you against the world when everything sucks (as it sometimes will.) It's being completely vulnerable in every way to another human being - it's taking a massive leap of faith.

And man, man is that more beautiful than just the roses and rainbows and butterflies. The real thing, shoot, it's incredible my friends. And it's worth holding out for.